Crackle PR

New PR agency that works with good companies only.

Vice President, Account Services

RevGenius

RevGenius is a group of revenue generating marketing and sales professionals brought together to learn, share, support, and grow with each other.

Member

Raw Restaurant Group

Shareholder

March Communications

Select accounts I've worked on: Aldebaran/SoftBank Robotics, ArcTouch, Comptel, CSR/Qualcomm, Dialog, IoT Solutions World Congress, National Grid, Nokia, Pitney Bowes, SiriusDecisions

• Leading overall campaign strategy, oversight and serving as an editor to ensure messaging consistency
• Focusing on building relationships and awareness with top-tier influencers
• Creative ideation and building awareness at the various stages of the buyers journey through creative vehicles

Account Director

• Managing PR strategy and execution across B2B and B2C technology and marketing accounts
• Cultivating relationships with key influencers, including top tier business and technology journalists, bloggers and analysts
• Writing and editing various forms of content, including press releases, bylined articles, case studies and blog posts, aligned with clients’ key value propositions

Account Manager

JDG PR

I provided strategic direction for B2B and B2C companies' PR, copywriting, social media and marketing. 

• Wrote and distributed press releases, both in the US and abroad
• Connected clients with key influencers, which resulted in top-tier publication hits
• Drafted blog posts, bylined articles, email and website copy
• Developed in-depth PR plans for numerous start-ups

Freelance

Prompt Communications Ltd

Select accounts: Oracle, Yell Group, MIT, Openbravo, Hippo, Concursive/CentricCRM, ApacheCon, Colosa, smartFOCUS, Corizon and Webtide.

•	Managed international accounts and developed PR, marketing and social media plans for clients ranging in size from Fortune 500 enterprises to startups and in locations from Los Angeles to Boston, NYC, the UK, Spain, Germany, Bolivia and the Philippines
•	Wrote and distributed hundreds of press releases, articles, white papers and blog posts which led to pick-up from the press and traffic to client websites
•	Worked with journalists in the UK, Benelux, France, Germany, Italy and the Philippines

Aviva Life Insurance

Quality Assurance Specialist

Bentley University

•	Wrote press releases that appeared in the faculty newsletter and were showcased on the front page of Bentley’s website
•	Managed database of news clippings

Public Affairs Assistant

Award-winning public relations expert passionate about telling stories that matter, making people believe in world-changing ideas and taking the next step to say "I want in." 

I connect start-ups with their audiences, game-changing technologies with true believers and established businesses with disruption.

The channels are evolving. Digital PR, brand storytelling, content marketing, demand gen, social media, paid media and more all need to work together.

Specialties: Public relations, external communications, thought leadership programs, media and analyst relations, social media, inbound marketing, demand gen, content marketing, search engine marketing (SEM), native advertising..

Ke Huy Quan's speech when he won an Oscar tonight was powerful.

He came back to acting at 51. (Side note: how is he in his 50s?)

While he had some early success with Indiana Jones and the Goonies, he found it hard to find work and quit acting for 2 decades.

But there was a dream simmering inside of him, and eventually, he realized he didn't want to give up on it and went for it.

He auditioned for Everything Everywhere All at Once and the rest is history.

Nobody would have had him winning an Oscar on their Bingo card a year ago.

His parting words stayed with me:

"Dreams are something you have to believe in. I almost gave up on mine. To all of you out there, please keep your dreams alive."

Crazy things can happen when you try. Like winning an Oscar. Or whatever that might be for you.

Btw, I loved that movie. It was so good.

#Oscars #Oscars2023 #Motivation #Success

James Gerber 📣

Ke Huy Quan getting choked up after he won an Oscar.

"Why aren't we in that article?"

Here's one of the most frustrating things about PR and why it's so hard.

To find journalists who are relevant for a specific pitch idea, you need to look at what they've covered in the past.

Have they covered something similar?

Great, they could be a good target.

But then you reach out to them and they're not interested in retreading the same ground.

Because of course they don't want to write the same things over and over again.

Or you can choose to reach out to someone who hasn't covered something similar.

That's most journalists who are writing about a topic, with the exception of wonderfully reliable beat writers, a dying breed.

If they haven't covered a topic, it's less certain it'll be up their alley.

And how do you know you're choosing the right person?

Well, you don't, and you risk having them see you as not being targeted.

Lots of bad agencies spam the hell out of them, and you don't want to be lumped into that group or risk getting blacklisted.

So you need to pay attention to them, make educated guesses, try to connect to their interests and take calculated risks.

And then maybe, just maybe, they'll read your pitch and show some interest.

If you're lucky.

#PublicRelations #PR #Marketing #Communications #Journalism #Media

That feeling when you finish writing a piece and can finally close all the open tabs that relate to it.


#Writing #Content #PublicRelations #Marketing #PR #AdvertisingAndMarketing

Janet from the Good Place saying "bye guys!"

💩

That's Twitter's response to any emails to their press@twitter.com email.

In line with his juvenile sense of humor, Elon randomly decided to reactivate that alias just to send poomojis to any journalists or anyone else who emails it.

Because they have no PR team.

They got rid of their entire comms function when he bought the company.

That means there's nobody to correct any inaccurate articles. 

Nobody working to try to create a positive perception of Twitter. 

Nobody there to help with all of the crises that are constantly breaking out.

Nope, just an unmonitored email alias and sporadic, unfocused responses from their CEO's personal Twitter.

Good luck with that shit.

#PublicRelations #Twitter #Journalism #PR #Marketing #DigitalMarketing #SocialMedia

I help companies tell their stories and reach their audiences | Public Relations Pro | Brand Storyteller

Screenshot of press@ sending me a poomoji

🚨New feature alert!🚨 Has anyone else seen this?

This message popped up above my feed today.

It's for collaborative articles, which are a new content type aimed at tapping into the collective knowledge of LinkedIn's community.

It asks to contribute to an article about a topic that seemingly relates to a person's professional experience.

Each article begins with AI-generated text, surely using ChatGPT given the Microsoft connection.

Then experts add to it to provide unique, real-world experience ChatGPT lacks.

It's a smart move, leveraging technology they already have to start capturing traffic from a tremendous amount of business-related keywords very quickly, and also building up a library of useful info that will complement LinkedIn Learning and LinkedIn proper.

LinkedIn has unique access to experts that other platforms don't have.

Here's what LinkedIn says about it at the top of each article:

"Help unlock community knowledge with us. Add your insights into this AI-powered collaborative article.

This is a new type of article that we started with the help of AI, but it isn’t complete without insights from experts like you. Share your thoughts directly into each section — you’re in a select group of experts that has access to do so."

It feels like it's equal parts LinkedIn News, Quora, and an AI-generated SEO article all at once (or kind-of like Forbes Expert Panel or Terkel articles for my PR/SEO peeps, IYKYK).

I'm not sure how many people have been invited to contribute so far. I'm also not sure how many topic areas they're focusing on. But you can bet that I'll be tracking that.

So why should you jump in if/when you have access to it?

1️⃣ Visibility on LinkedIn as a thought leader

When people who are following you see you in one, it's going to reinforce the perception that you're a thought leader. And it'll encourage people to follow you who read the articles.

2️⃣ Being seen in Google searches

LinkedIn's DA is 99, so these articles are going to rank like a MFer

3️⃣ Use for your own content

You can share articles you're featured in, either as LinkedIn posts, tweets or in your company's newsroom

4️⃣ LinkedIn searches

Over time, audiences - particularly job searchers and B2B workers - will search LinkedIn for articles on topics they want to learn more about. You'll be there first

5️⃣ Making company pages more dynamic

I'm assuming they're going to give organizations the ability to create collaborative articles on their LinkedIn pages at some point, and that will be a useful way to engage your audience and build relationships on them

Do you have any thoughts on collaborative articles?

Are they a good thing for LinkedIn? Or adding to the flood of AI-generated content that is just starting?

And if anyone knows any additional details about collaborative articles, I'd be interested in hearing them!

#LinkedIn #SocialMedia #PublicRelations #Marketing #DigitalMarketing #SEO #AI #ChatGPT #AdvertisingAndMarketing #LinkedInFam

An invite on the top of my feed asking to contribute to 1 of 5 articles.

I'm Team Permanent Daylight Savings.

It's so much better to get the extra hour of daylight after work ends.

Let's make it standard time instead of permanently ending it.

Which side are you on?

#DaylightSavings 

It's a hell yes or silence now.

Not even a no.

That's what media relations is these days.

And why PR people need to adapt, embrace the non-traditional.

I remember when I first started in PR...

We'd pitch 50 journalists on a story, for example, and get 10-20 responses.

Actual feedback. A lot of the time, it was a simple "pass," but you could ask a journalist why and then adjust what you were doing. 

Or do a round of outreach on the phone and reach people live, to talk through ideas in real-time.

That led to valuable and career-shaping insights. From feedback like "it's irrelevant to my beat because of X," or "it doesn't sound interesting enough, it's missing element Y," or "all of our coverage this week will focus on Z event."

Those comments helped you figure out how to tailor outreach more effectively, how to make your pitch more compelling, and how to
time it right.

Now there are fewer journalists covering the same amount of stories (or more), with inboxes that are inundated. Not just with pitches from PR people, but lots of other crap. Like the rest of us.

Remember feedback from calls? Good luck catching them live. They, like everyone else, use their cellphones and screen calls, if they even
make their numbers available. 

Their listed office numbers never have actual people answering. Even if you can navigate through the maze of menus to reach a journo's work number, you're going to reach a voicemail nobody ever checks in an office that's gathering dust.

If you're not aggressive enough, you're never going to cut through. But if you're too aggressive, you risk getting blacklisted. It's a tightrope walk.

Why didn't that proactive pitch work? Why aren't people responding to this piece of news? What do the media think about that topic?

I used to have better answers. Clarity.

Now? We have limited information to go on. It sucks.

It's up to us senior PR pros to pass along the insights we learned and try to figure out what resonated or didn't, but so often, it's a guessing game. A gut feeling, informed by past experience.

It's also important to know what that is telling you, and pivot to other strategies, tactics and channels as necessary. There are far more ways to reach an audience than ever before, and pitching the traditional media is just one.

But when you do get through? That's when magic happens.

🔹If you're in PR, are you feeling the same way?
🔹If you're not, has your career changed over the years?
🔹Has it gotten harder? More competitive?

#PublicRelations #Journalism #PR #Marketing #PRAgency

Media relations isn't the most important thing PR people do.

Not by a long shot.

Does that surprise you?

No, the most important thing we do is develop messages. Stories. Refine narratives.

If you can't talk about what you're doing in a compelling and differentiated way, nobody will pay attention

Which means everything else you're doing is for naught.

Sure, most of us do pitch the media, analysts, influencers, etc.

But that's just one activation of those stories and messages.

There are so many more.

It manifests itself in what employees tell others about the company, in ads, in content, on social, etc.

It requires a lot of research, listening, digging into the conversations that are out there, and synthesizing everything.

A lot of companies have a narrow view of PR, but PR people should be involved early on in any major initiatives.

Use them strategically.

And you'll be impressed by the perspectives your PR people will add.

Is there a perception about what you do that isn't accurate?

Or not the whole story?

#PublicRelations #Marketing #AdvertisingAndMarketing #PR #Strategy

"What would you say you do here?" - Michael Bolton from Office Space

Create the unexpected.

Mac and cheese donuts are blowing up here in Boston.

A new restaurant opened up a few weeks ago at the end of January. When it did, its owner knew it needed to find a signature dish to draw in crowds in the crowded restaurant scene.

After introducing his crazy idea, the social media buzz led to them selling out every night since.

Talk to your customers and understand what they like.

But be inspired by them. They don't know what they haven't seen yet.

If he asked someone if they wanted a mac and cheese donut before making it, would anyone have said yes?

People like donuts. They like mac and cheese. So why not?

It's a combo people never considered.

But it turns out it's one that somehow works. And taking a risk on the unexpected paid off.

Would you try it?

What's another unexpected combination of 2 different things that works?

#Marketing #SocialMedia #PublicRelations #Food #Branding #AdvertisingAndMarketing #TikTok #Boston

Did you know women are more than half of the college-educated workforce today?

And when they're given an opportunity, they 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐡 𝐢𝐭.

Women in sales are 11% more likely to close a deal.

Female investors outperform men by 40 basis points.

Female doctors have better patient outcomes - lower mortality rates and fewer readmissions.

A consulting firm studied women's effectiveness as leaders and found they're rated significantly more positively than men.

There's some evidence women perform better in a crisis.

And yet...

Only 10% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women. That's double what it was  a few years ago, but there's a long way to go.

As I type this, I'm watching basketball. If someone is a higher percentage shooter, you want them to be the one to take the shot at the end.

Now I'm no math expert, but if I was running a big company, I would take a good hard look at how to nurture female talent and make it more equitable to make the entire org run more effectively.

When companies make crappy moves to create more profit, they so often spout "shareholder value" as their justification. 

"Why did we lay off thousands of people? Shareholder value." "Why are we outsourcing that division? Shareholder value." "Why did our price change to your second born in addition to your first? Shareholder value."

So why don't we flip that on its head when it comes to DEI? If you want better returns, giving women a chance is an excellent way to create... you guessed it, shareholder value!

Shout out to all the strong women out there on International Women's Day!

#InternationalWomensDay #Business #Leadership #Work #Culture #Equality 

So you've gotten a piece of media coverage...

Do you just upload it on your website and leave it at that?

Here are other ways to use it:

✅ Add all the logos on your website as proof points (e.g. "as seen in...")

✅ Share it on all your social channels. That could be quotes, images, links to the coverage, a longer excerpt from it, etc.

✅ Mobilize employees to share it on their social channels

✅ Share with customers or prospects if it provides useful information

✅ Use for internal comms, e.g. links on Slack/Teams, in the employee newsletter, etc. to get people excited about the company's momentum

✅ Use it as the starting point for a blog post

Media coverage is valuable substantiation for your brand.

It's getting harder and harder to come by.

So when you do get recognition, make the most of it.

Did I miss any good ways you've used media coverage?

#PublicRelations #Marketing #AdvertisingAndMarketing #PR #Communications #PRAgency

George Orwell's 6 rules of writing:

1️⃣ Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

2️⃣ Never use a long word where a short one will do.

3️⃣ If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

4️⃣ Never use the passive where you can use the active.

5️⃣ Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

6️⃣ Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

They were true when he wrote them in 1946. And still true today.

✌

#Writing #Copywriting #Marketing #DigitalMarketing #PublicRelations #Storytelling

Reminder:

You are not your job title or salary.

I see all of you VPs of Marketing who are as talented as any CMO out there.

I see you managers at big companies who would be better CEOs than most.

I see you solopreneurs who hold every job title at your "company" and have all the talent in the world but not the revenue to match.

I've known amazing people who fit each of those descriptions.

And also people with elevated titles who were the opposite, clearly operating out of their depth.

Startups and smaller companies offer more responsibilities and opportunities to try things. Big companies offer more stability. It's a choice people make. 

One thing I've always focused on is trying to get better and tuning out the rest.

Your abilities are what matter most.

#Work #Startups #Career #Jobs #BestAdvice

Only 1% of LinkedIn users post content in any given week.

If you post 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, you're already way ahead of almost everyone else. But how do you take it beyond personal branding?

Imagine if you got your whole company to do that.

What would it mean if everyone in your company was instantly a top 1% creator on a platform?

If all of your engineers, finance, HR, legal people, etc. came together to promote the company's mission...

A massive increase in exposure and word of mouth.

Some really explosive growth. 🧨💥

3 things often prevent that from happening:

1️⃣ Employees aren't inspired enough by your mission

2️⃣ Corporate culture isn't supportive of social

3️⃣ People don't know what to say

You need to create killer messaging that makes everyone understand why the work they do is important.

You need to make people want to share and then build into your culture that social = good.

Then you need to enable everyone with content. Make your corporate channels engaging and give employees examples, best practices, etc. Teach them.

So go out there and take over the world, one social network at a time.

#SocialMedia #Marketing #PublicRelations #SocialNetworking #AdvertisingAndMarketing #PersonalBranding #LinkedIn

"People helping people. It's powerful stuff." - Vince Vaughn's Wedding Crashers character

I'm feeling a 2008 vibe right now.

A big bank collapsed. Other big banks are showing signs of failure (like Credit Suisse and First Republic right now). 

Tech company layoffs.

An overvalued housing market and other asset bubbles.

Fear starting to drive decisions.

People who are insistent "this time it's different."

But like the saying goes, "history never repeats itself, but it does rhyme.”

We may be in for a tough couple of years ahead.

I hope it really does play out differently this time. But at the moment, I wouldn't bet on it.

Is anyone else having a 2008 feeling?

#Economy #Business #Recession #Tech

You are your own brand.

So you might as well take control of it.

Everyone has a reputation. We're all active on social media. 

We all have goals we want to achieve, ones that would benefit from building relationships and being more visible.

You have a chance to steer how you're perceived, and it's worth taking advantage of it.

Share your uniqueness.

Be ahead of others in your industry in raising a profile as a creator.

Gain valuable new skills in the process.

There are lots of reasons to do it.

What are yours?

Have you had any cool things happen because of your personal brand?

#PersonalBranding #SocialNetworking #SocialMedia #Branding

Don't want your promising PR career to die an untimely death?

Here are 7 costly mistakes to avoid:

1. Lying - Trust is everything in PR

2. Leaking info - Just like...don't do it

3. Breaching trust - Don't use confidential information for personal gain

4. Mistreating reporters - We're all on the same team, y'all

5. Ignoring the details - We move fast all the time, and can't afford major mistakes

6. Lack of transparency - Don't withhold info from stakeholders

7. Not giving spokespeople what they need to succeed - Train them well and step in when you need to

What's your #8?

#PublicRelations #PR #Communications #Marketing #AdvertisingAndMarketing

Guys, I finally found out why the algorithm chooses certain posts over others.

"Because..." and then Ben from Parks and Rec runs away suddenly.

How to find your voice

Look, there are lots of exercises you can do. But the one I prefer?

Write so much you don't give a shit what other people think.

#Writing #Creativity #SocialMedia #Copywriting #Marketing #PublicRelations

Did you know that 61% of employees don't know their company's mission?

That's shameful.

Don't be one of those companies.

A good mission statement clearly defines what you stand for.

It clarifies your objectives as a company and how you'll reach them.

These 4 steps are starting points to build an inspiring mission statement...

1️⃣ Value - Why does your company exist? What value does it give customers and employees?

2️⃣ Inspiration - Why should people want to do business with or work for your company?

3️⃣ Truthfulness - Who are you REALLY as a company?

4️⃣ Specificity - Can you cut down to the core of what you do without being vague?

Once you've established the answers to those questions, you'll want to:

- Keep it short. Simpler messages are spreadable messages

- Think long-term. It can shift over time, but there should still be a semblance to your original mission

- Don't limit yourself. Specific doesn't mean you exclude future markets or opportunities

- Get input from employees and other stakeholders, even external ones. You don't want to create it in a vacuum

- Revisit it. Keep going back to it to see what might need to change as you change

Once you have a mission and get everyone to buy in, momentum starts to build.

#PublicRelations #Marketing #Branding #PR #Brand #Leadership

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